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tv   Americas Newsroom  FOX News  October 30, 2012 9:00am-11:00am EDT

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>> steve: these are some of the images that depict sandy. if you would like to share some yours with us, send them to us at youreport at fox news.com. >> brian: we'll have the latest coverage, keep it here. if you have to run from the tv, run to the radio. stay tuned for the after the show show taking place right after this show is done. tied is hitting death toll is 16 people. rescuers trying to find people in their homes. no doubt they're out there.
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millions of people are in the dark. sandy is not done yet. good morning, everybody, i'm martha maccallum. bill: martha, good w good morning to you, martha i'm bill hemmer. we're in columbus, ohio. what a swing this made for this election. a couple miles from here. snow slamming central ohio. east and west virgina there is a blizzard warning covering a large part of that state. in parts a foot and even two feet of snow dropping in west virginia. martha: incredible pictures. back here in new york everybody is waking up to the devastation left behind by hurricane sandy. let me tell you something, it is epic. trees and power lines crashed in homes and cars. really everywhere you can look, the county's largest transportation system of subways and trains in the right now. floods have taken over many
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of the underground systems in new york city and the brooklyn battery tunnel which connects lower manhattan to brooklyn is basically underwater as well. you will see amazing pictures over next couple hours. they're coming in every minute as we speak. this super storm has literally knocked out power to more than 7 million homes and businesses in 17 states. nearly four million dark in in new york and new jersey right now. this storm plunged parts of lower manhattan into complete darkness. it turned the streets near wall street into rivers. basically, from just south of the empire state building down. they have complete darkness. a very eerie sight for everybody in this area. let's go to rick leventhal who has weathered this storm throughout the night in one of the hardest hit places on the jersey shore. that is point pleasant beach, new jersey. it is beautiful beachfront area so hard hit.
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rick, what can you tell us today? >> reporter: martha the sun peeking out for first time in more than 24 hours. we're getting first look at widespread devastation along the new jersey coastline including some of these beachfront homes which in some cases lost sections of wall. in this case you can see into the living room in this house. the beach is in their living room. this is the case up and down the coast. i want to take a walk this way. ocean avenue was inundated. power was out all day and night. there is a foot or more of sand covering most of the roads here. in this coastal community. this may not be unexpected but it was certainly horrific. our hotel, you can see is sort of an island in this storm. the water was completely surrounding the hotel. two to three feet deep on the roads out here. it was a pretty rough night with very, very high winds.
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and the cleanup is going to be massive, martha. martha: those homes are now part of the beach. the beach you're walking through, deep section of sand, right, rick? >> reporter: well, i mean, look at this house right here, there is sand, there is sand right here inside the house. i mean it is all, this is a case up and down the beach. and there are, there are issues further away from the beach as well. a lot of streets are still flooded. there is two to three feet of water flooded. two to three million people on the state without power. two or three nuclear power plants had to shut down because of concerns with rising waters and issues of win and nearby water. there was deepwater on the streets in atlantic city. a lot of coastal communities saw heavy, heavy flooding, martha. a lot of homes and
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businesses suffered pretty significant damages. martha: we heard from governor christie, he is very concerned about the whole state. i know he is trying to get up into a helicopter to look at some of the damage. the wind are still too strong out there for that. rick what can you tell us about that whole area? martha: that was live shot from seaside heights, new jersey. go ahead, rick. >> the damages are widespread. mike come around this way. just to give people an idea how deep this stand is on this particular road. this along, like, you know, getting front-end loader in
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here to scoop the sand off the streets. this is just one block of one community. there are communities up and down the new jersey coastline just like this. they saw several feet of water. all the dunes were breeched. they have been washed away. that sand is up and down the streets here. look how bad this oceanfront hotel was torn up. the fencing is knocked down. we saw pieces of houses float by us last night. you see where some of the debris is coming from. there are fences gone. there are pools carried away and businesses are just really, really hit very hard here. martha: woe were just looking at scenes on the right-hand side of the screen for a moment there of the legendary atlantic city, new jersey, which really took the direct hit. we're back on those pictures again. this is an area that has really tried to sort of rebuild over recent years. build new hotels and draw
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people back to the atlantic city region to get commerce going there once again. we're looking at incredible pictures of trees look like they're flying around the streets there, rick. >> reporter: yeah. the good news, at least now is, that the seas have calmed. it is still nazi out there. we're not seeing flooding we were. there is another high tide. at least on the coast appears the surge earns concerns may have evaporated. all the water over the berms in those communities, a lot of it is still there. we know hundreds of people are stranded in their homes because the water has come into their homes and note leaving a.near new york city, there were 800 people trapped in their homes. there are issues dealt with now. rescues being made across new jersey. this, it is really incredible to me how bad this looks. it's, it's pretty
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devastating. martha: rick, thank you. for making it through the storm and giving us all of this coverage throughout this. we're going to come back too rick leventhal in a little while. rick, take care. we'll get back to you in a little while. the situation about the levee, we have a reporter coming from there 13 minutes from now. governor christie is urging people to stay put do. not to try to get down to the shore or get a look what is going on there quite yet. there are over 200 state roads closed down in new jersey. the parkway has reopened but it is still a very volatile situation, we hope we will get a chance to talk to governor christie to get an update from him over the next couple hours. let's take a look now at this hurricane known as sandy by the numbers so to speak. this packed 90 mile-an-hour wind before pummeling the east coast, affecting 1,000 miles of u.s. coastline and canada. as far inland as chicago. 7 million people are without
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power, basically, you don't expect anyone to have power today. it is the exception, if you have power. this super storm sent a record breaking storm surge into lower manhattan, the likes which has never seen. a wall of 14 feet of water, like a freight train into lower manhattan. sandy churned up dangerous seas over a stretch of atlantic nearly 1600 miles in diameter. and one of the worst stories is the six alarm fire sweeping through a flooded neighborhood as if the flood wasn't bad enough, then came the fire in queens, new york. this is a very old neighborhood, an area where people do not like to leave their homes. the flames destroyed more than 50 family homes in breezy point. it is still burning as we speak. 200 firefighters responded to this scene. they found a large number of people who had ignored warnings to get out of that area. the water started rising and then the fire came and that forced the firefighters to
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put their own lives at risk to save people from those flames. one of them describes the ongoing heroic effort. >> i scaled onto the top of the awning and onto the parapit. there were 25 civilians. >> 25 people inside the building? >> on the roof of the building. >> the fire was spreading? >> the fire was in the two-story building next door and fire was coming across the top of the roof. i jumped on top of the roof. i broke one the windows to an adjoining building two buildings down. we went in to take a little bit of refuge. we waited for firefighter morrissey to rescue two to force the entry into the front door. he forced the entry to the front door. we were able to transfer people from the rear of the apartment to the front of the apartment apt downstairs to the boat. there were 25 people in the boat. we had to walk all the way down the water in chess high water. martha: those people were urged to leave that area t
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brings the point home for everybody. not only did floodwaters prevent from fighting fire but low pressure prevented them from being able to put the flames out. we'll get a story from that scene in breezy point. we'll bring you that. meantime a new york city electrical substation explosion was caught on camera. look at that. that was the scene on the east side of manhattan in the middle of this storm. con-ed says it does not know if flooding or flying debris caused the blast. it clearly started everybody in the area. >> what is that? [bleep]. i don't know what is going on. it is hurricane. what the hell is this? something just exploded. martha: listen to the wind in the background. that is kind of what it sounded like in new york city last night, folks. underground power lines like one with that deliver electricity to new york city,
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are not vulnerable to the wind and and when they're damaged they're harder to get at for repairs. david lee miller has been watching the storm throughout the night. he is live in new york city on the lower east side, a hard-hit area. good morning, david lee. >> reporter: good morning, martha. we're on houston street. yesterday where i was standing people say the water was actually wastd deep. this car, jaguar was legally parked. force of the water of moved it into the roadway. the owner of car is with me now. juan, what happened yesterday? you lived here. describe the scene on houston street. the water receded. damage remains. >> car is totaled. when i came down it was waist deep and getting deeper. i came down this morning to look at car. the car was parked legally. it's totaled. >> you live around the corner from here. tell me about, what is happening with those who live in the neighborhood.
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>> power outage is out completely. yesterday if you look up where the cop cars are there is park on other side of the fdr. >> that is the roadway right by the river. >> that was completely underwater, complete hi underwater. >> reporter: juan, thank you very much. as i said, martha, the damage does remain and it is going to be a massive, massive clean up. it is going to take several days if not weeks before life does return to normal. back to you. martha: a long, long time. david lee, thank you very much. those are just a few of the headlines that are the hurricane sandy story this morning, folks, more than 200 patients though, here is another one, were forced to evacuate a major new york city medical center.t patients were carried down the stairs, including children, babies on vent regulators they had to evacuate from this medicalbu facility.go more on that, right after this.ne nd only, cheerios ♪
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>> surge came in from the seawaters went into new york
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city and pushed into other coastal towns as well. this is the subway station. in hoboken new jersey. this right across the hudson river. waters rushing out of the subway there. many subway platforms are completely flooded. seven different paths between queens and new york city are flooded. it really, who knows how long it will take. it could be days. could be weeks before some of the trains will run again. run. this is rough, rough situation. go to bill in ohio. bill: all the time. we're live in lump bus, ohio, we are 550 miles west of new york city. give you idea how large this storm is, late yesterday afternoon throughout the night last night, winds sustained at 40 miles-an-hour. that is 550 miles from the
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center of the storm. this monster storm barreling toward the west and toward of the north, hitting areas of pennsylvania, but, not before, it laid a hand on maryland and other parts in between. maria molina has been working through the night back at the weather board for us right now. maria, what is the status of sandy at the moment? >> right now sandy does have maximum sustained winds of 65 miles an hour, and the center of it, is 90 miles or 100 miles to the west of philadelphia, pennsylvania. it is very large storm system. as we know the center of the storm doesn't really matter where the center is because many people feel the impacts. you're in ohio, you've been dealing with a lot of heavy rain and strong winds. people west of chicago dealing with wind gusts in excess of 40 miles an hour early this morning. the strong winds kicking up waves across portions of the great lakes, lake michigan seeing wave heights from 20 feet. incredible stuff from sandy did. we saw strong winds yesterday from overnight
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hours. we have wind reports of over 90 maup winds across parts of long island and center of sandy made landfall with atlantic city, new jersey with maximum sustained winds of 80 miles an hour. that was around 8:00 p.m. eastern time. so the storm continued to move inland and over portions of pennsylvania. it dumped rain over several states. new jersey seeming to get brunt of it, or gotten the brunt of it, just shy of a foot of rain reported there. it is still raining there. it is likely we'll exceed a foot of rain. otherwise delaware, 9.55 inch muches of rain in milford. a lot of areas seeing heavy rain as well. bill? bill: maria, blizzard conditions in west virginia, a foot or two on the ground there. 1.2 million without power in pennsylvania. greater number in new jersey and higher than in new york. what does sandy do,000? and who will be most impacted over the next day, or 48 hours from now?
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>> everyone from the great lakes to parts of the east coast across mid-atlantic portions of the northeast will continue to deal with winds, anywhere from 30 to 50 miles an hour. but the winds gradually subside into the afternoon hours tonight and into tomorrow. sandy will pull away and northward into portions of canada, as we head late in the wednesday into thursday. we'll see conditions improving. it is a large storm. it will continue to linger. bill: maria, thank you, don't go far. i will be back in touch with you shortly. the campaigns have been suspended. only one week from election day, seven days away. martha, back to you. breaking news in new york. martha: that's right. we're getting pictures that have come in from howard county maryland. and we want to show you these because the flooding there has been intense, look at these pictures, you know. all up and down the east coast we're going to get
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video like in this morning. we would ask you if pictures and video sinned it in to us at fox news ureport. all of these are best window figuring out what happened and how bad the damage is in some of these areas. very deepwater, clearly in howard county maryland. lots of power outages. millions of people up and down the east coast are suffering scenes like this. this is 9:20 in the morning on the east coast. we're just beginning to get a look how bad things are. all of the governors and all the leadership in all the communities have urged people to stay put. it is clearly not time to get out and try to visit your neighborhood and see how bad things are, there are still limbs that could come down. a lot of streets were weakened overnight. because they're not down now, doesn't necessarily mean they will not come down in the coming hours. please be careful if you need to head out and best to stay put. how about this? a heartbreaking scene
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outside one new york city hospital as hundreds of patients including 20 sick babies were forced out into the middle of this storm. plus this. atlantic city taking a beating from hurricane sandy last night. wait until you sea what it looks like this morning. >> i never seen on atlantic avenue. i live up in the inland more and always flooded up there. but i never seen it like this up here. >> reporter: what are you guys going to today? are you going to stay here? >> we'll stay here. we're on the third floor professor sargent, can you tell me what cd rates will be in two years? no. if he can't, no one can. that's why ally has a raise your rate cd. ally bank. your money needs an ally.
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bill: besides the seven million plus without power up and down the east coast, sandy, knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people here in ohio. that brought the buckeye state the first taste of snow over the season. came down last night into the morning hours. heavy wind and damage reported in central ohio and canton, ohio, in the northeastern part of the state that is home to the nfl hall of fame. high wind warnings remain in
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effect for ohio into tomorrow. folks are urged to stay indoors. if that is possible throughout the day today. martha: as we've been talking about, there is major damage to report in atlantic city. steve keeley from our fox affiliate in philadelphia. >> reporter: this is the kind of truck you never see on the road except in disasters. these things don't put a lot of miles on. these guys are dressed like they're about to jump out of an airplane because they know how dangerous it is out here. power lines are down. you say if it is down it could be live and if it is live you could be dead if you touch it. good to see the national guard out early starting to look how devastating this is for people's lives. above are with the truck is going now, high-rise windows blown out. i don't know if you see this but curtains are blown out too. that shows you how windy it is right here. where did the boardwalk end up? look at pile of boardwalk right here.
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there there is refrigerator out of their kitchen into a pile of boards along with couple of cars. this big pile. boardwalk support pilings here and into the garage. guess who is here? one of the people who did not leave. first of all, why did the heck did you say when you have a brand new house so close to the ocean here? >> the last storm, i figured it wasn't that bad. i just figured it wasn't that bad. >> reporter: you didn't watch me because you have no power and you came out here said oh, my god over and over and over. [inaudible] >> just unbelievable. unbelievable. i saw the boardwalk floating down but i never knew it was going in my garage. >> reporter: you're holding up pretty good. it probably hasn't really hit you yet but the damage could have been worse and you're alive. that's what counts. martha: he said you're okay,
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and that's what counts. you're hearing that a lot in this area. that was steve keeley, filed that an hour ago from atlantic city. you hear a lot about storms that get hyped and clearly that does happen from time to time but not this time, folks. the widespread path of the he do instruction that was left by sandy is really beginning to be discovered where the storm bends next, is a big concern today. keep it here for team fox coverage. we'll be right back. my name is hunter cannon.
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martha: all right. get a look at this. we're just getting information about the several holes that have been paresed in the protective bubble. what you're looking at is the shuttle enterprise. remember we showed you the amazing video when they brought it down the hudson river and put it on top of the intrepid, the aircraft carrier permanently moored in the hudson river. if you see the name of it on the side has been ripped through. there is the enterprise which has, you know, is now exposed to this storm and then in the back, there's also the tail sticking out. the reports are that the tail of the shuttle enterprise after period to suffered damage in this storm. we're working more to get information on the shuttle itself. it was a rocky road getting it there. it has been through a rough night. the shuttle enterprise on the deck of the intrepid
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aircraft carrier. this hurricane truly battered the east coast. it flood ad lot of coastal towns. that is ocean city, maryland. we know areas like wildwood and avalon have also been very hard hit in this storm. we've seen boardwalks and beaches that have been destroyed, plunging millions of people up and down the coast into the dark today. steve harrigan is live in ocean city, maryland. is not far from where sandy hit. how bad is it where you are, steve? good morning to you. >> reporter: good morning, martha. it is worse here on the bay side of ocean city, maryland, than where we saw the storm coming in. it really peaked with high winds at 5:00 p.m. certainly hurricane gusts. this area of downtown ocean city was largely closed off. there was a mandatory evacuation. it looks like a ghost town. this st. louis avenue is pretty much turned into a river. it is a pretty strong current coming in.
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you can see the car half underwater behind me. most of the people are gone. there will be significant flooding. it looks like it will take a long time for this to clear up. there are some towns even worse shape than this. we'll try to get over there later today. as far as damages go, the main pier has been completely chewed up by 15 foot waves we saw last night and there were at least 15 rescues carried out overnight by rescue guard and rescue workers. two fatalities in maryland. one from a tree coming down and a car skidded out of the government officials are really adamant telling people to stay off the roads. of course roads like this will be impasseable for some time to come, martha. martha: you have to worry about power lines that are down. be very careful around those as well. steve, you just walked by a campaign sign behind you a moment ago and it reminds us we're just a week away from election day. you can't help but wonder what the impact will be in some of these areas as they get people back up and
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moving around in their communities to have any ability to get out to vote. >> reporter: it certainly changed the focus completely. actually early voting was canceled yesterday and canceled again today. so people really have gone from thinking about the election to thinking about getting their first floors dry here in ocean city, maryland. martha: steve when you take a look at the damage around you, obviously as you point out they're discouraging people from coming back to try to get a look at their property, obviously looks as though everybody cleared out of that area you're in, right? >> reporter: right. this is the low area of ocean city, maryland, the downtown area. usually about 7,000 people here during the off-season. most of those, you know, storm experienced, pretty hardy people. most of them did get out. a few hundred did stay. no injuries here. the national guard was working throughout the night. the winds really felt like a hurricane, five, 6:00, 7:00 at night.
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we saw signs snapping off, small items of debris blowing through the air. it got pretty dicey last night. now it is just weird to stand in the middle of a road with a pretty good current coming down st. louis avenue here in ocean city. martha: boy, it remains to be seen the economic impact of all of this and these areas that have been hard hit already by unemployment and the tough economy to have to regroup after something like this and rebuild and find money to do all of those things is going to be a story we'll be coming in the coming weeks and months. steve harrigan, thanks so much. we'll check back in with you a little bit later. bill: also this update. a crewmember is now dead after abandoning a replica of a famous ship. this rather is the hms bounty, a tall ship sinking off the coast of north carolina in this storm yesterday. really took on plenty of water from sandy's wrath. the crewmembers forced to
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jump off the ship. rescuers ended up saving 14 victims by helicopter along with a crew member who ended up dying. one member still missing at sea. 18th century replica built for the iconic 1962 film "mutiny on the bounty" starring marlon brando. the ship's owner, as you can imagine, devastated what happened here. >> tearing at your heart. the kids that were onboard, they took care of the ship like it was their own and, you know, i have just spent my life, rebuilding this ship to get it to where, we saved her from literally the graveyard once, and to have her go like this is just heartwrenching. the ship was on amazing ship. everybody that stepped aboard her fell in love with her. i don't know why, what it is, there was just something abouter had. she just had a majestic grace to her.
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bill: one of the helicopter pilots saying the waves were 30 feet high throughout the entire rescue operation. just imagine what those men were able to pull off. martha, watching this thing overnight last night unfold on television it was a remarkable thing to watch. i thinking a lot about you and our colleagues back in fox riding this storm out. so far everything looks to be okay on our behalf. we have yet to see damage from long island, which is a 100 mile island that extends due east from new york city. we have yet to really get a fair sense what is happening in connecticut. normally the news helicopters in new york would be up in the air but the wind too strong for them to fly. no telling what it looks like there. in ohio, we have not seen or heard from the president yet. we expect him to make a statement today. governor romney, 90 minutes from now in daytona, ohio, actually kettering, ohio,
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south of dayton. he will be at a donation site to raise money and other goods for people back in the state of pennsylvania and new york and all parts in between. the campaigns politically have been suspended for the moment as we sit here in the heart of the battleground state in columbus, ohio, seven days away from this important national election. martha: right you are, bill. about connecticut and about the north shore of long island. that story remains to be told this morning. we're going to work on getting pictures from there as soon as we can. so many people living without power. millions across the northeast are trying to cope without electricity. so far they're patient. but how much longer will that go on? we will see. we'll be right back with more, live coverage in "america's newsroom.". my new hearing aids
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york city. you see on the left-hand side of your screen the flooding there and on the right-hand side of the screen the fire which engulfed at least 50 homes we believe. there was frightening video and sound from firefighters saying pulling groups of 25 people off of rooftops. this was an area told to evacuate. a lot of older homes and older folks in many cases who stayed in those homes and, it was an extremely dangerous situation. firefighters still working to get that all under [ male announcer ] when was the last time something made your jaw drop?
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martha: i'm trying to give you an idea of how unpresents departmented this storm really is. at times during the height of the storm there were wind gusts of more than 90 miles an hour and up to ten inches of rainfall along the east coast. it produced a storm surge of a wall of water of nearly 14 feet that plunged into downtown manhattan shattering the previous record that because set by eileen whic irene which folks thought was pretty bad 14 months ago. sandy was nearly 1600 miles when it caught up with the winter storm in diameter and created very dangerous seas over a stretch of the atlant atlantic nearly 1600 miles in diameter. it has been a devastating
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storm. we are waiting right now for an update from the new york city mayor michael bloomberg on all of this. you've seen our reporters have been out there this morning and have been showing us the damage that has been devastating. that the scene where mayor bloomberg will be moments away. look at these pictures, it literally rushed into the shoreline of new jersey last night. 80-mile an hour wind there, pushed a wall of water inland -frbgs looking a -- look at the flooding in these areas. this shows us the true scope but it's yet to be completely understood. we start this with a brand-new hour of "america's newsroom." i'm martha maccallum. >> i'm bill hemmer. good morning again we are live in the battleground state, columbus, ohio today. the mayor again briefs in a matter of moments. we will break away to him when he starts. the last briefing he offered was 10:00 last night. that was 12 hours ago.
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today we are 550 miles due west from the epicenter of the storm. we are feeling the affects here just like people throughout ohio, into illinois. they were reporting waves on lake erie in cleveland, ohio 15 feet high. the reporters up there have never seen that as long as they have lived in cleveland. 16 deaths so far attributed to sandy and more than 7 million americans across 17 states now without power. preliminary estimates for damage $20 billion. this will be one of the most expensive natural disasters in u.s. history. martha. martha: boy, no doubt, bill of that. let's take you a little bit further along the jersey shore here, south where the storm came on last night. we've got significant damage in all of those beautiful towns up the coast you've got wildwood and stone harbor and avalon, all the way up to point pleasant and
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bay head all those towns along the shore. barrier islands, long beach island hit very hard roads completely washed out to get out there to the barrier islands. rick leventhal has been awake all night covering the story for us. he stands right now in point pleasant beach. good morning again, rick. >> we witnessed that storm surge come ashore obliterate the downs here along point pleasant beach. we are on philadelphia avenue. a wall of water, you can see the water still standing here. you can probably see that white car marooned in the floodwaters. i want to introduce bruce cochran, a homeowner whose house is right down where the car is. you say you have a couple of feets in your house. >> a couple of feet. the oak floors are buckling from the water. i believe the water came up above the electrical, you know, the outlet boxes. >> you weren't home when this happened but i came become to inch pebg inch pebgt it.
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inspect it. >> we stayed for a while but we moved to my son's house. >> you do have flood insurance. >> everybody has to carry flood insurance within a certain limit. >> check out the debris in the street. ocean avenue by the way completely covered with sand and debris. there is a dumpster out there in the highway, a lot of other pieces of dock, pieces of homes, there are many, many, probably hundreds of homes here have have been impacted some very severely by the floodwaters. this is just one town of many towns along the jersey shore, martha, that have been inundated and slammed by this monster storm. martha: yeah we are hearing reports from people up and down the area, rick with trees into houses, and into cars and across the whole area where you're standing a lot of those home are old, they've been there for a hundred years many of those beach houses along the coast,
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right? >> yeah, there is a historic community just south of us with very old homes. we are hoping we can get down there. there is a couple of feet of sand on the road and a lot of debris with nails coming out of boards. it's hazardous but we'll try and get down there so we can survey some more of the awful results of this hurricane that has come ashore in atlantic city -- on the atlantic coast, a direct hit on the new jersey shore. martha: obviously a lot of people will be tempted to get into that heir kwrafplt the man yoarea. the man you spoke with, his son is on route 35 which is the route that goes through that area. how is the communication as to what people should and should not do. >> people are in the dark. there is no power here. there are a couple of million new jersey residents without power, and most of them don't have cell service either. we've heard a lot of complaints this morning that people can't make phone calls if they get a text or a call it lasts for four
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seconds and then they lose signal again. we are having issues with cells ourselves. so it's not easy to get information out. this gentleman and his sons were allowed to come in because they live here and the authorities allowed them to walk in to survey their home. no one is being encouraged to come in right now, because the situation is dire. there are rescues going on. and officials want to keep the roads as clear as possible, so that those rescues can be affected and people not get hurt by debris and downed power lines and that short of thing. >> i heard governor christie earlier an was talking about in parts of 95 there were actually three train cars that had been blown off of the tracks and onto the through way. the word is now that the garden state parkway is open, rick, so i would imagine that that might help to get some of the rescue and emergency folks in from some of the other areas out there? >> yeah, absolutely, martha, we heard they reopened the mark way but we also heard there were 200
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other state roads that remain closed, and many cases it's because of standing water or it's because of debris that is on t road, and that debris you can see here, and even more of it up on ocean avenue. there are chunks of homes, chunks of docks, i don't know if you can see at the base of that stop sign there is a large structure it looks like a piece of deck. there are 6, 8-inch nails poking out of that. that is the kind of stuff we are seeing up and down social avenue. you see the dumpster right there in the middle of the street? not that this is the biggest concern, martha, but theres two feet of stand here. they are going to get to get bulldozers in here to clean the sand up and allow people to get back to their homes. martha: rick thank you very much. we'll be back to you in a little while. we want to go further south to new jersey just inside of long beach island is the area of forked river nudge.
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new jersey. these where we find robert moses who is in the middle of flooding and he wants us to give a look will down there. >> good morning to you and good morning everybody. this is the forked river, just behind me you can see boats up on stilts. this is east lacy road where i'm standing right now and we artalking about nearly knee i've deepwater. the people who live in this neighborhood say they have never seen the water come up this high. this is an amazing perspective. east lacy road stretches all the way down as far as you can see and around the bend. canoes are the preferred mode of transportation on this road. it is not visible to drive in water this deep. i want to show you how powerful this water really is. as the water came over the banks you can see the debris that it dragged into this neighborhood, leaves and branches, and parts of trees, litter this neighborhood. again, people here say they have
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never seen anything quite like this. remember, just 14 months ago we saw hurricane irene rip through this area. they say this far surpasses that hurricane. martha, i just want to give you a sense of our route that bee tooget here. we were in manahawken new jersey, that's where we stayed last night. we lost power at our hotel. when we got up and navigating the roads as you heard rick talking about was a shore. there are trees down everywhere, power lines. we saw a traffic light down, completely shattered. it is very difficult to get around, martha become to you. martha: thank you so much. we are jumping in because we want to hear from governor chris christie who is speaking now the. >> 24 hours and what they'll have to contend with over the coming days, weeks and months. i'll first say to all of you, especially those out there who are facing loss, devastation and a heartbreaking reality that your home may be gone, we are with you. we have a long road ahead of us
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but i have complete confidence we are going to come out of this better and stronger than before. this state is too tough to give in to this type of devastation, and we in the government will be here to work with you to have new jersey completely recover. i've spoken with president obama several times. last time was at midnight last night. he assured me that we would have an expedited process with fema, get whatever assistance we needed. he moved an expedited process this morning by declaring new jersey a major disaster area. the eight counties that are receiving an medek louisiana ratioand immediate individual, atlantic, cape may, hudson, excess. middle south momoth, ocean and union. note this list is not final and many other counties will be added as we make a damage assessment. the biggest issues we are facing
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right now in our most inch packeted counties are search and rescue and restoration of pow every. i want to make up sure that we are getting to new jersey citizens who chose not to evacuate or got caught in floodwaters. our pr priority is to assure the safety and security of every new jersey citizen. our helicopters are in the air as we speak engaging in coastline rescue efforts. our swift water team is positioned in atlantic city and has begun rescue and recovery for hose who remained in atlantic city. teams units from central and south to union beach. middletown, bell mar. madelsquain are beginning rescue april rations. we saw tied alflooding in several areas. new york city, the bay area, monake and little ferry.
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weee diswatched state and federally supported teams to assist in rescues and providing shelters to those in need. 18 members of our speedy employment are also headed there in addition to the swift water rescue team, ten high wheel vehicles and boths. we'v boths. we are delivering dry clothes and blankets and working to transaction citizens to different shelters. we've provided support to the new jersey police september, the neurark fire department and the shefr i have' sheriff's department in the face of a power outage from newark from a high tide tkal surge. vehicles were sent to assist the new jersey police department with evacuations. the national guard has repositioned equipment to
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strategic locations across new jersey and has more than 450 high water vehicles, including humvees and heavy trucks available to assist civil authorities. there are also providing heldzs with video download capabilities to conduct reconnaissance of shore lines, the river bainess and other areas of post landfall damage assessment. there are currently over 5500 residents in state and local shelters, as of our latest count. we are working to set up shelters as we learn of new needs in addition to the five existing state-supported shelters. two at rutgers, one at mommoth and one at the arena in new jersey. we are opening a sixth settle her at the rout rutgers athletic center. we are working with the salvation army and the american red cross to bring in mobile
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kitchens to serve thousands of meals. box lunches are being delivered to state shelters today, we are also using fema food and water resources. the national guard is has deployed at the state settle her facilities if needed. there are a vast number of new jersey citizens without power in fact we currently have 2.4 million new jersey households without power. this is just so you understand the order of magnitude here, this is twice the number of impacted households as hurricane irene. hurricane irene was 1.2 million, impacted house hodes. this is 2.4 million impacted households. 1.2million of the 2.4 million from pfeag, 935,000 from jcp and l. 195,000 from atlantic city electric, and 45,000 from orange
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and rockland. during hurricane irene restoration took eight days for full restoration. for hurricane sandy the full restoration may in fact take longer. full damage assessment will not be complete until 24 to 48 hours due to some of the weather delays. they cannot develop the timeframe for restoration until damage assessments are underway and obviously these difficult weather conditions are making this more of a challenge. however, the utility companies have continued to reach out to other states for assistance, and we are expecting additional linemen, servicemen and tree-clearing workers from states as far away as texas and indiana and even folks coming from to us from canada. it will remain extremely dangerous in areas where trees and wires are down, i ask people to use extreme caution, assume that any wire you see down is a live wire and please do not go near it.
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there are currently 173 incidents statewide involving highway lane closures. most of these closures are the results of downed trees, utility poles and flooding. closures are statewide with the highest concentration in mommoth county but no county in the state has been spared. so avoid control of unless absolutely necessary. i want to say this now to private employers. unless you can identify a safe route for your employees to get to work i'd ask you to allow them to stay home from work today. we've deployed 800 employees from njdot to clear these incidents and we were able to open as you already know the garden state parkway this morning for its full length. new jersey turnpike is open from exits one to ten. the turnpike authorities continue to work to clear inner roadways between interstates ten and 14 of 7-foot high debris
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fields. 24 small rail cars were deposited on the northbound outer roadway in the carterette area by tidal surge. if you've driven in that area around exit 12 you know it well, there are small freight rail cars off to the side of the roadway. those rail cars were picked up by the tidal surge and carried onto the elevated roadway and landed all throughout the outer roadway of the new jersey turnpike on the northbound side. additionally the southbound ramp from exit 15w to interstate 280 has a large wash out. this is currently being looked at by our engineers with a standby contractor, and as soon as we assess the complete nature of the damage we'll begin repair work on that ramp. new jersey transit service
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remains suspended throughout the day today. later today new jersey will test infrastructure before any decisions are made regarding the potential resumption of service. we do know this. there is major damage on each and every one of new jersey's rail lines. large sections of track were washed out on the new jersey coastline. power lines and trees have fallen along new jersey transit railways across the state. several rail bridges damaged by storm surge including boats and other debris lodged on the railroad tracks. new jersey transit rail station hubs at hoboken,sacaukas and newark penn station were impacted significance lie by flooding. the new jersey complexion in carney is fully surrounded by
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floodwaters which came during the height of the storm. regarding our drinking water, we are seeing numerous water supply issues because of flooding and power loss. we currently have at least ten facilities with minor to major problems. wastewater facilities we have 13 facilities with minor to major operational issues due to flooding and loss of power. we are working with all the facilities to see how we can bring them power supply, equipment and resources to help bring them back online as soon as possible. in terms of our healthcare facilities, a total of 91 healthcare facilities have reported that they lost street power. this includes 29 hospitals, 58 long-term care facilities and others, however, we are expecting this number to increase as people call them in. some are reporting phone problems in their ability to be able to phone in issues to us. most are managing well and many
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are using generator power to be able to continue to care for their patients. department of health has requested 100 ambulances from the fema ambulance contract and we have received assistance from numerous other states. i'll ask before i take questions, upstairs in the conference room that we're using to manage this crisis, we just were given a look for the first time of the portions of the jersey shore by state police helicopter who was operating their cameras and relaying the images back. we looked at ortley beach, seaside heights and seaside park. all of them are nearly completely underwater. houses are moved off of their foundations. there are houses in the middle of route 35.
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the amusement peer at seaside park is essentially half washed out, the roller coaster and the log flume is now in the social. the second pier, the more southerly pier is also significantly damaged and some of those amuse -plts are now in the ocean. the level of devastation at the jersey shore is unthinkable, and we know that there are many people who own homes who we've evacuated who are going to want to get back onto the island to assess the damage to their homes. we are nowhere near being able to let you back onto the island. there is no place -- i'm leaving here soon after this press conference to go and tour. there is no place for me to land on the barrier islands. so we are going to have to get to brick is about as close as i
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can get to see. the rest we'll have to see from the air. foe with the instability of infrastructure on the barrier islands we haven't been able to assess the natural gas situation and others, we know there is no power. it would be completely unsafe for homeowners to think about today or any time in the next couple of days going back onto those barrier islands. so we want everyone to remain patient in that regard. i will report back fully to you at my press briefing this afternoon, what i see today. we'll be taking press with us on a pool basis, so that you can see what i see from the helicopters and report back to the public as well. but to prepare the public for what they are going to see it is beyond anything i thought i'd ever see.
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terrible. and so we need to remain patient, let the waters recede, and then we can go in and make a full assessment about rebuilding that area of the jersey shore. but it is a devastating sight right now. so we have a lot of work to do. i have absolute confidence in the fact that we'll be able to do it and do it together. i have confidence in the fact that we'll have complete support from the president of the united states and federal authorities. i think it's very important, though, for me today now that at least the wind has let up a little bit to see it myself so that when i talk to the president later today i can tell him personally exactly what i've seen to give him the full measure of the devastation that's happened to our state. no question in my mind given the reports that i've seen so far that the devastation that has happened to new jersey is beyond what's happened to anyone else, at least from the reports that i've seen so far, and that should come as no shock since
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the storm made landfall here. so, i want to tell the people of the state who are able to listen to this. who have power -- martha: and there goes the signal just as the governor of new jersey was saying if you are able to listen to this and watch this this is what we can tell you. boy, it is very clear that governor christie was shocked, i think is fair to say when he had a briefing moments ago and was able to get an aerial view of some of those beach communities that he said are literally gone at this point, underwater, according to his estimations. he had talked earlier today about wanting to take a helicopter ride to see some of those. they say governor there is nowhere for you to land in those areas, it is simply underwater, so many of of those beach communities along the way there is such a story that is to be told here that has happened along the shoreline and inland as well and it also needs to be pointed out that there are on
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going rescue efforts, that's why the governor began his talk with that. there are still people out there who are suffering and who are trapped, and that is a primary concern right now is to get those people to safety. a lot of prioritizing needs to happen right now, a lot of folks without power. boy, there are folks out there that still need to be rescued. the debris he talked about, he said there were rail cars in the middle of the new jersey turnpike lifted by the water, by the surge and dumped there. i talked about seaside heights the iconic amusement park and seaside hikes where the log flume or roller coaster he wasn't sure which are out in the ocean. unbelievable images the governor just gave us in his talk. we are starting to scratch the surface i fear. bill: i thought it was an absolutely devastating statement coming from him. and, martha, you live in that state, almost every town and every town has the heat off. it's something people recognize up and down the shoreline there in new jersey.
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the imagination runs wild right now based on his description. and i would also say when he talked about a house being in the middle of interstate 35, if he's describing areas that are beyond the ability to imagine wait until we see the images and the pictures coming out of the garden state. martha: we've got a picture up on the screen right now from seaside heights, new jersey. route 35, for everybody who knows it as you would see in shore communities up and down the east coast there is one main drag that goes through the town. you have houses on the water and houses on the other side that go through the town. route 35 is the main road that goes through there, and clearly some of those houses from the oceanside got pushed all the way up. we've seen stand up to rick leventhal's ankles and halfway up the parking meet tkers, literally the houses pushed off their foundation and into the roads. it is absolutely devastating, bill. >> we have that statement from
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governor christie. in matter of moments we are waiting on mayor michael bloomberg. he was expected to start his briefing another 10:00am eastern time, which would have been 25 minutes ago. i thoughts the news that he delivered last night, martha, at 10 cloak eastern time the last time he briefed, you can -pbl imagine what is beneatimagine what is beneath the streets of manhattan. he described the subways and the areas in lower manhattan that took on so much water. the number of 911 calls, 10,000 calls about every 30 minutes. most of them were for minor calls and he urged people to back off. you wonder who heard that message given the extensive power outages that were in place last night and continue more so even today. martha: just to keep in mind as we wait for mayor bloomberg, manhattan is an island. you've got to get to kwaoebgs, brooklyn.
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queens, brooklyn, you've got to get to new jersey. there is literally no way to get back and forth. as governor christie said, bridges, tunnels closed for the most part. the lincoln tunnel is open but he said people should not be using those unless they are absolutely necessary. we wait for mayor bloomberg on the left-hand side of your screen. he will be speaking any minute. we will take a quick break and be right back. try running four.ning a restaurant is hard, fortunately we've got ink. it gives us 5x the rewards on our internet, phone charges and cable, plus at office supply stores. rewards we put right back into our business. this is the only thing we've ever wanted to do and ink helps us do it. make your mark with ink from chase.
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martha: we are waiting for mayor bloomberg. he has a lot to say to the people of new york city about the conditions, the tunnels, the subways, people's' safety at this point. as soon as that is underway we will take you there. in the meantime, one of the worst stories that has surfaced so favre this disaster is the six-alarm fire that has destroyed 50 homes, perhaps the entire community in breezy point, new york city. nearly 200 firefighters responded to this scene and they found a large number of people who had not got even out, who had ignored the warnings before the water started rising, and that forced in many cases the ftny to put their own lives at risk to save the people from the flames and danger. there is a reason why they would be very concerned about that community, which we'll tell you in a moment. joining me now on the phone new york city councilman eric alrich, he represents breezy points queens. look at the aftermath.
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it looks like a bomb hit this section of new york. mr. alrick, i'm so sorry for what has happened to your community. what can you tell us that the point? >> i just left the rock way peninsula and what you described is what it looks like, absolute and total devastation, it is so sad to see the destruction that has taken place as a result of the storm. not only from the flooding, the damage is certainly extensive and considerable but as you mention the damage from fires, not only in breezy point where it was at his worst but also in bell harbor where so many buildings burned down to the foundations, the fire department has been there, and most of the fires have been contained and reduced to the smoldering foundations, but for the most part just total devastation and we are still trying to assess if there was any loss to human life for any other damage. martha: you know, folks are talking about this community and saying that there is a lot of
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retired nypd, a lot of retired firefighters that live in this community. can you confirm that? >> these people are the salt of the earth, some of the finest people in and the hardest working people of new york city. as you mentioned retired and active cops and firemen, some teachers, and unfortunately i just got a text on my phone now, my friend and the congressman, bon turner, his house also burned down. one of those 50 homes ravaged by father our own congressman bob turner. >> we've had him as a guest on this show and our heart goes out to him and everybody in these communities, and the pictures are just incredible. you know, in terms of lives, and securing, you know, those who are out there, give us an update if you can on what they are telling you about who may still be out there if anybody? >> i believe that almost every one has been accounted for. thank god for our ems workers, and our police department, and our fire department, and the volunteer fire departments in
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breezy point, god bless them for staying in breezy and trying to rescue people and evacuate people and get people to safety and trying to contain some of the fires. last night was horrific for so many people who were trapped, literally trapped in breezy point, calling 911 saying, my house is on fire, or the house next to me is on fire and no one could get to them. it's anyone's worst nightmare and yet today the skies are clearing up, we are thankful that to my knowledge there hasn't been anyone who was killed by a fire in breezy point. you know, but it's just total, total devastation. >> let's keep this picture up as the councilman talks. you think about war zones and that is exactly what breezy point new york looks like this morning. every home in this -- in the view of this camera is simply not there, the trees have been fried, and it is absolutely devastating to look at this picture and think about this community. i was also reminded that this is
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the area, everyone remembers shortly after september 11th a plane went down in this area. >> the plane after 911 went down in bell harbor not far from breezy point. bell harbor was also ravaged by fires last night. ace was in bell harbor about an hour ago so many people who live in breezy who escaped breezy point had told me that all they could do is stand and watch last night as they saw the red and orange glow in the sky. they knew there were out of control fires in their community and that they were helpless, there was nothing they could do about it. what a horrible feeling it must have been to those people to know they have lost everything. >> the training that screams out at my right now is what people can do to help. as you point out this is a group of people who live in this community, you want to help anybody in any community but it's clearly a special room. >> as i was in rack awa rockaway i what you the red cross points into pwroezee point. for the you viewers on fox news
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that can contribute to the red cross certainly we want to help the relief effort there. this is going to be a massive cleanup probably totaling in the billions of dollars while we rebuild the rockaways. the boardwalk in many places was blown-out by the ocean. in blond channel almost the entire community was completely submerged. thousands of cars totaled, tens in millions in property damage. the only thing i think we can be thankful for is that there weren't more lives lost. this was a storm of biblical proportions. martha: you know, i heard a report from a firefighter this morning who said when they arrived there were 25 people standing on a rooftop. so they successfully saved the lives of all those people, if you're telling us that there has been no loss of life, so you're right, true per p ow heroism has taken place in breezy point. and would he need to be great full for the volunteer firefighters who went out there and the people who went out
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there who quite honestly had been asked to evacuate, but they are salt of the earth as you point out and many of them had been in those homes their whole lives. >> it's very sad, total devastation out there. as i mentioned this was an intense storm. i think people took it for granted. too many people stayed. i think it's a decision that they've come to regret but thankfully there hasn't been that many lives lost in this and we are just thankful to the good lord for that. the homes we can replace. we will rebuild rockaway and rebuild it better than ever. martha: you're absolutely correct about that. the incredible spirit of new yorkers are at work and they will rebuild. we are grateful to those folks who helped them and saved their lives. we'll hear a lot more stories about that area what's continue through the journey of covering hurricane sand deal. we are still waiting to hear from mayor boomburg. he will be speaking moments away. connecticut governor dan malloy is also giving an update on the situation. there were reports last night of very tough situations in connecticut as well.
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we will try to find out about that for you. he has been telling reporters that the storm may be over but the search and rescue operation are still underway. look at that huge hundred-year-old tree no doubt that is toppled. rescue operations there just beginning. >> we took a big hit over the past few days and i want to thank the people of connecticut for hanging in there. we did our best to protect you and stand with you and now it's our job to get people's lives back to normal as quickly as possible. that may take some time, but we won't rest until it happens. martha: the governor also noting that the travel ban on state highways has now been lifted. the schools remain closed in connecticut for more than 650,000 people in connecticut are still without power. bill: a huge system, most of the northeast getting slammed with sandy's wind and rain. elsewhere, further inland and
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places where we are in columbus, ohio, snowing overnight, and snowing in parts of west virginia. it was a blizzard there, three feet of snow on the ground in the mountains of west virginia, lower elevations have about a foot on the ground. it is still snowing there this morning. 128,000 without power in that state alone. authorities have been forced to close 5 miles of a major interstate because of those blizzard conditions. also parts of north carolina hit with heavy snow from this storm. the governor declaring a state of emergency for 24 counties in the appalachian mountains where high winds are still hitting the tar heel state. there are ski resorts opening torpblgs its earliest opening ever. we are a week away from a national election. that's why we came to ohio. we haven't seen or heard from the president yet. we expect a statement from him at some point. governor romney will have an event about 30 miles from now,
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in kettering, ohio, 30 miles south of dayton. it's a donation drive to try to encourage people to bring canned goods, water, whatever supplies they can collect to send to folks in new jersey, new york, connecticut and basically whomever needs it. we will see the governor within the hour at that event here. martha: no doubt part of that story is just beginning. there is going to be so much help that is needed in terms of, you know, perhaps food and blankets. people should go to red cross, salvation army in order to figure out the best way to target their desire to help. we know that folks around here are a very strong community and they'll want to do that, and as far out as ohio as well, they are anxious to help in that way too. i know that will be hugely appreciated when those efforts are underway, bill. bill: just one other point here. with regards to the campaigns who knows if the president or the governor will go back on the trail tomorrow? they may suspend operations again tomorrow pending the outcome of some of these events that governor christie was describing. once we see the images and the video on the ground in new
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jersey we will all be in for a big shock here, martha. martha: as the governor said earlier the campaign is just going to have to wait. there is a job to do and he is very determined to do it just as mayor bloomberg who we are waiting to hear for. we are waiting an address from him. we'll get you that when it is underway. we heard from governor chris christie, clearly devastated by what he has seen, the damage along the jersey store. >> there are a vast number of new jersey citizens without power. we currently have 2.4 million new jersey households without power. this is just so you understand the order of magnitude here, this is twice the number of impacted households as hurricane irene. i'm a conservative investor. i invest in what i know. i turned 65 last week. i'm getting married. planning a life. there are risks, sure. but, there's no reward without it. i want to be prepared for the long haul. i see a world bursting with opportunities.
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we love to travel -- and there's so much more to see. so we found a plan that can travel with us. anywhere in the country. [ male announcer ] join the millions of people who have already enrolled in the only medicare supplement insurance plans endorsed by aarp, an organization serving the needs of people 50 and over for generations. remember, all medicare supplement insurance plans help cover what medicare doesn't pay. and could save you thousands a year in out-of-pocket costs. call now to request your free decision guide. and learn more about the kinds of plans that will be here for you now -- and down the road. i have a lifetime of experience. so i know how important that is. martha: folks, you're not going through the brooklyn tunnel any time soon. some of these sights we are seeing are mind boggling.
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if someone showed me the picture before i wouldn't believe it happened. i've driven through the tunnel many, many times. it's so deeply underwater right now who knows when they will be able to get that dried out. a lot of very, very limited access to new york city. we'll keep you posted on all of that. and bill, boy, wait until you get back and you get a look at this. it's just unbelievable, bill. bill: yeah. it really takes your breath away. you have to figure out how long it takes for something like that to dry out too. saltwater churning there. the mayor briefing in matter of moments. i know we've been standing by for that. it's supposed to start about 45 minutes ago. we will bring that to you. here is more history too. the floor of the new york stock exchange it will be empty yet again, the first time that weather has forced the shut down for more than a day in 125 years. that was the blizzard of 1888. exchange officials say the trading floor did not sustain
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any damage as of last night. there were some rumors going about but they were not true. we are expecting plenty of volatility too when it does reopen, traders are scrambling to make moves ahead of friday's unemployment report, and next week's presidential election, there is potential damage from sandy, that drove european and asian markets a bit lower yesterday too when the exchange opens, and right now we do not know when that is. is it tomorrow? will it be thursday or beyond that? at this point we don't have an answer. martha: there are some safety concerns from the storm in terms of shutting down portions of two nuclear power plants. those concerns are at the salem plant in new jersey, and at indian point which is about 45 miles north of new york city, jerry nappe is the communications manager at indian point and he joins us on the phone. welcome. obviously when you hear any concerns about a nuclear plant in this kind of environment it
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raises some eyebrows. tell us what we should know. >> well, at indian point it's a very well protected site and obviously there is clear damage up and down the river at different sites, but specifically at indian point flooding has historically been virtually been nonexistent and we didn't experience any flooding on site yesterday. we also did not experience any wind damage, so these plants are built to a very high standard, and i think that showed yesterday with that severe weather that we were able to withstand. martha: let me ask you this. one of the reports that came out from ap said one of the units at indian point was cut down on monday because of external electrical grid issues. what does that mean? >> right, so late last night one of our two units they sent power out to the grid, and out in the electrical grid there was a disturbance. what that means is we cannot send power out any longer. if we can't send power out to
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the grid our plant shuts down by design automatically, basically to protect itself from further electrical damage. and the plant operated as it's supposed to do. >> it sounds like you have no concerns at this point, is that correct? >> again, we are very well protected. we expect to have that unit back online in the next couple of days after a number of safety checks are done, but we did weather the storm very well yesterday. martha: there was also this issue with a unit at the salem plant which is a hannexbridge facility. do you know anything about that plant or the other plants along the coastline? >> it's one of the plants that anthergy owns. those plants came through the storm well, operated safely and are continuing to operate. martha: jerry, thank you. everybody will watch the situation encloses lee and it sounds like everything is under control. we'll stay on top of it. thanks for speaking with us
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today. we appreciate it. >> thank you. martha: new video coming in every minute because we are really starting to get a look at all of this. look at this picture, a ship ashore grounded in staten island as we await an update from new york city's mike bloomberg and you can make out some bits of the new york city skyline in the background there unbelievable. the picks just keep coming folks. we have more coming. we'll be right back with more. are you receiving a payout from a legal settlement or annuity over 10 or even 20 years? call imperial structured settlements. the experts at imperial can convert your long-term payout into a lump sum of cash today.
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martha: the big apple hurting today. this is one of the iconic images of hurricane sandy in new york. look at this. it looks like a doll house. the entire front of a four-story building collapsed, exposing the inside of the apartments there for anybody familiar with this area this is the chelsea neighborhood 20 blocks south of broadway for those of you who
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have have it ited tha visited that area. the bricks reigned down on the area narrowly missed firefighters. nobody inside the building at the time thankfully and no reports of injuries. thank goodness for that. right, bill? bill: yeah, i tell you. the last part of that story i found astounding. when i first saw that hr-s night and the number olast night, and the number of people outside you thought for sure there were people inside affected by that. to have no injuries that is remarkable. let's go southbound to the nation's capitol in washington. washington d.c. for a longtime they thought they would be in the crosshairs. flooding this morning, though, still persists along the potomac river, a lot of trees down too. shan and bream is in arlington, virginia across the potomac from washington. how are the conditions there, shannon? >> bill, they are tough this morning. i'm going to be honest with you. i want to show you what we found a couple miles outside of washington, this is arlington a
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suburb outside the nation's capitol. check out this tree. we are told it's been here since the civil war, it went down from one neighbor's yard into the other crashing into a home. you may able to see personal affects there. a suitcase. into the attic you can see clothes hanging up. i talked to the owner of the home saying he was there where the tree hit when it hit. they were cleaning up dinner when the the tree came crashing in. all four got out safely. he is working with an adjuster who is surveying the damage. he says i only care that my family is safe, now we can remodel the house. there is a similar scene a few blocks away, a tree that came up by the roots taking much of the sidewalk with is and crashing into apple who there. it's what we see block after block in this particular neighborhood. you mentioned flooding. that will be troublesome here. to the north of us in maryland there is extensive flooding because you've got the potomac
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on one side and water coming in from the bay, from the chesapeake bay which is flooding as well. that will complicate effort. in maryland we have confirmed two deaths. one did come, a tree falling onto a home killing a man there and also a traffic accident related to the storm. the flooding will continue through the week and the national weather service tells us this could rank in the top five of all floods the poe to potomac has suffered. and we are dealing with winds and rain here, back to you in ohio. bill: when we look at that storm you were in the southwestern quadrant of it. sometimes that can have perhaps the more favorable conditions, let's say. but what were things like overnight there in washington d.c. in the area around virginia and maryland? what did you feel? >> well, we had a lot of wind gusts. there were some that reached up into the 70s, 75-mile an hour peak range during the time the storm was coming down. the rain was very heavy. you know if you were lucky enough to be inside you'd look
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outside and see trees bending to the ground wondering how they would actually survive. many of them haven't. of course with them they take power lines. that com complicates things as well. 430,000 people without power in this area, bill. bill: shannon bream live in virginia for us there. martha become to you in new york. martha: just to give you a sense of how much devastation there is and how long it's going to take to get people on track we are getting word that the path train which is the main way to get to work for most of the folks from the new jersey side across the hudson river into manhattan at least in the hoboken area for sure, look at that's hoboken in terms of the path train, that will be closed seven to ten days we are now being told. very few ways -- if they are going to drive in they could do that, there is a ferry that may reopen earlier than the train would be my bet. we'll see. it's an indication of how rough it will be and for quite some time, bill. we'll take a quick break and come right back with much more
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